


Masks

by vashtra



Category: That '70s Show
Genre: Character Development, Developing Relationship, F/M, Short & Sweet
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-27
Updated: 2020-07-27
Packaged: 2021-03-06 07:47:31
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25559800
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vashtra/pseuds/vashtra
Summary: Hyde wonders what he and Jackie actually have in common.
Relationships: Jackie Burkhart/Steven Hyde
Comments: 1
Kudos: 28





	Masks

“Talking is for people who have something in common.”  
Hyde hadn’t said it to be mean, he had actually hoped she might try and prove him wrong. He had wanted her to give a list of stuff they had in common that made them good together. He had tried to create a list himself but he had come up empty. Jackie seemed to agree with his assessment though as she just nodded to his statement and kissed him. It would take years of reflection (and maybe a couple drinks) for him to answer the question his teenage self had posed so casually.   
Sure, on the surface, they had absolutely nothing in common. She was rich and a popular cheerleader and he was a poor burnout. Seemingly completely unconnected and unrelated; they might as well have been from different planets. There, Hyde would later discover, stood their biggest similarity that neither of them could see at the time because it meant dealing with stuff they were both trying to avoid. Steven Hyde and Jackie Burkhart both had some of the greatest masks the world has ever seen. Hyde had grown up hiding from the world behind a mask of complete indifference. His ‘zen’ and his sunglasses helped create an illusion so strong that not even Eric, practically his adopted brother (though, admittedly, not the most observant guy), could not separate the mask from Steven all the time. He was comfortable in his tinted world, safe in the knowledge that no one would be able to crack his carefully crafted persona. Not only would someone crack it, they would top it.   
To his surprise, his mask was nothing when compared to Jackie’s. Jackie gave the role ‘dumb, shallow cheerleader’ a whole new meaning. Hyde was pretty sure no one knew the girl underneath fully, not even her. She had even fooled him for the longest time and he used to think no one was capable of that. She hid behind makeup and gossip and boys and it was genius because no one expected anything else from her. It was only after they had been officially dating for a few months that he began to notice things that betrayed her usually perfect facade. Such as when he would find her reading one of his books while she waited for him to come home, or when he learned the truth about her family and her empty house. It had been easier to keep emotions hidden and unacknowledged when he didn’t notice the mask, but then he couldn’t stop seeing it and when he finally was allowed behind it he knew he was forever changed. He could never love someone like that ever again.  
Despite what they both projected to the world, Hyde and Jackie knew that they were good together, that they fit perfectly behind each other's masks’. They had found a home for each other in the space between their walls and the cold reality that the walls kept out.


End file.
